io WILD-FOWL AND SEA-FOWL OF GREAT BRITAIN 



posely, for commons, rabbit-warrens, sometimes 

 heaths and large open fields, are to be found there. 

 As a quarry for a trained falcon, this bird is highly 

 valued by some falconers. It has had to make the 

 very best use of its strong swift wings very often in 

 the counties I have mentioned ; but frequently to 

 no purpose, for the falcon with fatal stoop will strike 

 it to the ground. 



The first Stone Curlew on which my wondering 

 eyes rested in boyhood days was shown to me by 

 a shore-shooter who had shot it in the marshes ; 

 the birds bred there, and right away to their great 

 breeding station in Romney Marsh. They may 

 breed there still for anything I know ; I have not 

 been there since barbed wires were introduced in 

 that locality. Barbed wires and natural history 

 pursuits do not agree very well. That shore-shooter, 

 a good old friend who has been at rest now for 

 many years, was most patient with me, and his eyes, 

 those dark-grey, far-seeing eyes, twinkled when a 

 torrent of eager, jumbled-up questions rushed from 

 my lips. With linger and thumb he parted the 

 bird's eyelids that we might see the yellow, owl-like 

 eyes ; then he turned it about in all directions, finally 

 stretching out the legs for me to examine. All this 

 he would do to please a boy, who took far more 

 interest in birds than in any other matter. 



The Stone Curlew is not only shy, but it is as 

 suspicious as a rat that has lost a fore-foot in a trap. 

 It runs with amazing speed, and its flight is very 

 quick and strong. The eye of the bird tells you 



